Cheshta TaterCo-founder, Rightantra Babies can tell faces as early as three months old. Soon, they learn to identify emotions, expressions, and gaze cues. Not being able to identify the same could slow an infant’s speech and social development. Undoubtedly, facial recognition is an important landmark in development. The same was true for technology. But would you want someone to be looking at your face 24X7?
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Anoushka ManiContributing Author, Rightantra Nisha PurohitContributing Author, Rightantra with valuable inputs from Ameesha Tripathi Editor in-Chief, Rightantra It was a bright Sunday morning, and I was ritualistically curled up on my sofa reading the newspaper. Suddenly, high pitched yelling broke my focus. Upon investigation, I found that it was my neighbour’s kid, Sonu screaming because his mother refused to let him start his day with video games.
Cheshta TaterCo-founder, Rightantra Did you know that child grooming is not recognised as an offence by itself? How do you then take action against the groomer? Read on to learn.
Cheshta TaterCo-founder, Rightantra For obvious reasons, people find secrets “shady”. Although they are not always, a request to keep it hush could be an indicator of child grooming. As a child, this is beyond comprehension. If you know better, the groomer will tell you that you do not.
“You kept me like a secret, but I kept you like an oath Sacred prayer and we'd swear” Cheshta TaterCo-founder, Rightantra Ever since Taylor Swift released the 10-minute version of All Too Well, I cannot help but think about child grooming whenever I listen to that song.
Anushka MehtaCo-Founder, Rightantra I am sure most of you reading this article would remember the vastly criticised, astonishing judgement passed by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court, earlier this year. If not, the mere mention of the phrase ‘skin to skin contact’ should be sufficient to jolt your memory. This phrase was used by Justice Pushpa Ganediwala in her judgement that acquitted a man accused of inappropriately touching the breasts of a 12-year-old girl, under section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO Act) and instead convicted him only under the lesser charge of section 342 and 354 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
On November 18, 2021, the Supreme Court overruled the erroneous judgement of the Bombay High Court by convicting the accused under section 8 of the POCSO Act, on appeal by the Attorney General of India along with National Commission for Women. Anushka MehtaCo-Founder, Rightantra Globally, most countries restrict the right to abortion, permitting termination of pregnancies only in specific situations, while six counties ban abortion entirely. Out of these, the law regulating abortions in India is one of the most progressive legislations, especially in light of the recently notified amendments vide the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021 (“MTP Amendment Act”) as well as the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Rules, 2021 (“MTP Amendment Rules”). While India has been legally permitting abortions since 1971, the increase in upper gestational limits by the MTP Amendment Act and Rules, is another step in the right direction.
Cheshta TaterCo-founder, Rightantra Ever since I started educating myself on child rights and welfare, I make it a point to take jibes at my parents on things they should or should not have done while raising me. Not that I have an issue with their parenting but just to pull their leg, as all family members do to one another. Last week, as my mother and I were on our way to a toy store to buy presents for a couple of six-year-olds, I was preparing myself. I had decided to correct my mother the moment she would ask for gifts based on the gender of the children.
Anushka MehtaCo-Founder, Rightantra Apple Inc.’s controversial announcement in August, 2021 regarding the roll out of new child safety measures on iPhones and other products, saw varied reactions from child rights advocates and privacy experts. It was amidst such mixed reactions, that Apple decided to postpone the release of their measures limiting the spread of Child Sexual Abuse Material (“CSAM”), providing Apple with room to taken into account feedback from stakeholders.
For all the android users and others living in their own bubble, Apple proposed to implement tools within their devices to prevent sexual exploitation of children through technological communication. The proposed measures were to be in the content of iMessage communication through pictures and parental control; detection of CSAM on iCloud Photos and lastly, intervention by Siri during web searches related to CSAM. On one hand these measures were lauded as being critical steps in the fight against those trafficking CSAM, however, there has been an equal, if not larger, amount of criticism against the same. While security experts and privacy enthusiasts have appreciated Apple’s underlying well meaning intention, strong concerns about backdoor surveillance as well as undermining the necessity of end-to-end encryption. The reason why this is so shocking is because Apple has always valued the privacy of its users above all, but these proposed measures boil down to the age-old question, whether the privacy of a child or another user can be compromised in the name of protection? Anushka MehtaCo-Founder, Rightantra Disclaimer: The subject matter of this article is sub-judice as on date of publication, and this article serves solely as an expression of opinion.
In the field of education, the purpose of the 42nd Amendment to the Indian Constitution appeared to be the embodiment of the wise words of Helen Keller, “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much”. To contextualise, prior to 1976, the power to legislate on education was solely within the ambit of the states. However, based on the recommendations of the Swaran Singh Committee, the need to evolve all-India policies was realised and the subject was shifted to the concurrent list, i.e., education was brought under the ambit of both Centre and states. This has been widely debated with a resolution for reversal of this change being moved in the Rajya Sabha by Mr. Vaiko in 2019 as well as similar demands by committees in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, formed prior to implementation of the National Education Policy, 2020 (“NEP 2020”). The issue has once again come to light in a Public Interest Litigation petition (“PIL”) filed by the Aram Seyya Virumbu Trust, before the Madras High Court which is presently pending adjudication. Delphi Behavioral Health Group Nisha PurohitContributing Author, Rightantra He never drank in high school, nor did he experiment with drugs socially.
Nisha PurohitContributing Author, Rightantra Catastrophe. Destabilization. Uncertainty. Terror.
This is what defines the present status of Afghanistan. As the Taliban gains control over Afghanistan, there lies a grave concern regarding the welfare of civilians of Afghanistan. Human rights breaches are increasing, especially against Afghan women and girls who fear a return to the worst days. The consequences of the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan are not mere guesses, rather interpretations from the Taliban’s rule past rule in Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001. Cheshta TaterCo-founder, Rightantra with inputs fromChehak Tater TW: Rape, Abusive Language, Violence
Is a trigger warning a way to avoid triggering trauma or is it a term we use to overlook traumatic but very real events? Ignorance indeed is bliss but how do we tell this to a young girl being called a “harami” by her own mother; to a sixteen-year-old whose lover has been sent to fight a war for things he does not believe in; to thousands of young children who would probably never see their birth-nation again? Anoushka Mani Contributing Author, Rightantra TW: Mention of violence and rape
“The Taliban moved into the house,” Rahim Khan said. “The pretext was that they had evicted a trespasser. Hassan’s and Farzana’s murders were dismissed as a case of self-defence. No one said a word about it. Most of it was fear of the Taliban, I think. But no one was going to risk anything for a pair of Hazara servants.” 1996, The Kite Runner. Nisha PurohitContributing Author, Rightantra Usually, I don’t start my day with the newspaper but, one Sunday morning, the headline of the newspaper caught my eye. It read, “500 illegal Child Welfare Institutions have been shut down by the Ministry of Women & Child Development (“WCD”)” and another headline read, “Offences committed by Juveniles will be bifurcated as heinous, serious and petty”. I wondered, if a ‘Juvenile’ is defined as a ‘Child in Conflict with Law below 18 years of age’, how is it possible to treat a 16-year-old as an adult?
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